A Good Book Quote Art Tutorial

Part two of the Mod Podge book pages fun was the "A Good Book" quote art. 

A few years ago, when I made some nursery art for my SIL, the canvases were on sale at 2 for 1! So I bought a few extras, of course! And when I had a lot of ripped book pages left, I decided to make the art piece for the shower. This tutorial is a little light on specific pictures, so if there is any confusion, email me!

What you need is an 8 x 8 canvas, an old book, Mod Podge, a foam brush, black craft paint, small paint brush, a small amount of black lace, a button and hot glue.

I started with covering the canvas in book pages the same way I did the serving tray. It's pretty simple; rip pages, then use Mod Podge to stick them on. I searched online and found this quote, "A good book has no ending." by R.D. Cumming. I like the suggestion that a book you love with live on by becoming a part of you.

Now, some day, I might actually own some sort of cutting machine (my dream is a Silhouette!). But for this, I just used black craft paint and a little brush. 

 I like how bold the letters are, and also how there is a little drag from the brush around the edges.

Once the paint is dry, brush on a layer of Mod Podge over the entire surface of the canvas.

To create the flower in the center, I cut out 4 circles from the same book I was using. They can be any size you want, and they don't need to be perfectly round. I free handed mine and they were roughly 3 1/4 in in diameter.

Crumple them up to add some texture.

Smooth them out enough to fold them in half.

Then weave the four folded circles in to one circle.

Use hot glue to secure them together where one folded circle overlaps another.

To help set off the book pages flower from the book pages background, cut two circles from some black lace. The larger circle should be about 5 1/2 inches in diameter, and the smaller circle about 3 1/4 inches in diameter. I know that makes the smaller circle of lace the same size as the paper flower, but we are going to melt it, and that makes it shrink up a bit.

I didn't take any pictures of this next part because I was using both hands to burn stuff, so fire safety took priority over pictures! It's pretty simple, though. Use a lighter or a candle to melt the edges of both lace circles. I also burned the edges of my paper flower. Be VERY CAREFUL during this part. The pages DO CATCH ON FIRE and you need to blow it out so the whole thing doesn't burn away. Again. please be careful!

Now we are to the final assembly! Use hot glue to secure the flower to the center of the canvas. Remember that lace has holes, so put down the glue, then place both the larger lace and the paper flower down over that glob of glue. (Don't try to push down the lace on it's own, like I did... oops.)

Then lay the smaller lace down, add the glue and push the button in the center. And you are done!

I love how this piece turned out! A constant reminder that reading is important,

and the things we read stay with us.

And that's just awesome.

The Book Garland

I am in no way saying that this garland was an original idea by me. I got the idea, supply list and how to from Martha Stewart. But for as awesome as Martha Stewart is, her online how-to's are not always very clear. I like a lot of pictures, and she has more text instructions. So this here is how I made my version of her book garland.

First, I'll show you how we made the books. Instead of going out to buy various shades of pink, we decided to just use the scrap-booking paper I had on hand in a variety of colors. We kept them all soft colors of pink, green, purple and brown so they went well together.

I cut the scrap-book paper the dimensions Martha suggested of 4" x 7". 

The description of how to fold the spine confused me, so here is how I did it. Place the paper wrong side up, fold over the right half of the paper so the right edge is 1/2" inside the left edge. Press the fold firmly. Open it up, and fold the it mirror image. (So the left edge is 1/2" inside the right edge.)

Now you should have a 1/2" spine, like this:

The next step is to glue in the book pages. We used an old book of mine. We found that the pages weren't quite wide enough for the 7 inches, so we cut a bit into the text on the left side of a page, and then glued two pages together with a glue stick. Cut the page to just under 4 inches tall.

To glue the pages in, I found it easiest to apply glue from the glue stick right into the 1/2" spine, and attach the pages there. For ease of folding, I made sure that the page seam was inside the spine.

I trimmed off the over hang on either side.

This last step is optional. We left half alone, with just the two folds. The other half, I folded the book into the center to meet and make a more prominent spine. It also holds the book open more. It was nice to have half this way and half without the extra folds, because it gave it more variety of both open and closed books.

And there you are. Make a bunch! Overall I think we used just under 50 for our garland.

Now, for the flowers. I went to the dollar store to find inexpensive flowers for this. I was just about to give up and walk out when I saw the "Luao Party" section, and these leis.

I brought them home, cut the string and pulled off the flowers!

This one lei got me about 70 flowers and a handful of leaves. I threw away the plastic spacers.

Here's the result of tearing apart 6 leis. Over 400 flowers!!

I used some left over black nylon twine I had from crocheting a purse a few years ago for the string. I used a yarn needle and threaded right through the center of the flowers onto the string. Despite my plethora of flowers, I only ended up using about 60 or 70 flowers and a few of the leaves.

Lena tied the string to the curtain rods on one side and we taped the string with masking tape on the other wall. See the flowers all bunched up? We just spaced them out after the string was secure.

The last step we took was to add the books by hanging them with little clothespins. Martha Stewart also had ribbon flags and star shaped cut-outs glued to her string; but we thought that would be overkill, especially with how densely we packed in the books and flowers.

Here's the end result! It was a huge hit. 

Sweet Little Girl Hat

This is the little baby girl hat I made in case the newest arrival of my sister turned out to boost our tiny number of females in the family from 5 to 6. Instead we are slipping farther behind (now outnumbered 10-5), but darn! that boy is adorable!! Anyway.  This is my first time writing up a crochet pattern, so if something doesn't make sense, please let me know.

Items Needed:

2 coordinating sport weight yarns - mine are pink (A) and white (B)

Size I crochet hook

yarn needle

Hat:

Holding both yarns together, ch. 4, sl st in first st to make a loop.

Rnd 1:  ch 2 (counts as first hdc), 7 hdc in center of loop, sl st in top of ch 2 (8)

Rnd 2:  ch 2, hdc in same st, 2 hdc in each st, sl st in top of ch 2 (16)

Rnd 3:  ch 2, hdc in same st, * hdc in next st, 2 hdc in next st* repeat from *to*, sl st in top of ch 2 (24)

Rnd 4:  ch 2, hdc in same st, * hdc in next 2 st, 2 hdc in next st* repeat from *to* until last 2 st, hdc in next 2 st, sl st in top ch 2 (32)

Rnd 5:  ch 2, hdc in same st, * hdc in next 3 st, 2 hdc in next st* repeat from *to* until last 3 st, hdc in next 3 st, sl st in top of ch 2. (40)

Rnd 6-8: ch 2, hdc in each st around, sl st in top of ch 2. (40)

Rnd 9-12: ch 2, hdc in back loop only in each st around, sl st in top of ch 2. (40)

Rnd 13: ch 2, hdc in both loops in each st around, sl st in top of ch 2. Fasten off.

Shell edge: 

Using A, fasten on any hdc, ch1, sc in same hdc, *sk next st, 5 dc in next st, sk next st, sc in next st* repeat from *to* 10 times, sl st in first sc. Fasten off. 

Use yarn needle to weave in ends.

Flower Petals:
With A, ch 5, sl st in first ch to make a loop.

Rnd 1: ch 1, 10 sc in loop, sl st in first sc.
Rnd 2: ch 1, sc in same st,  * 5 dc in next st, sc in next st*, repeat from *to* 5 times, sl st in first sc, fasten off leaving a sewing length.

Use sewing length to fasten petals onto the hat between Rnds 9-12.

Flower Center:
With B, ch 13.

Row 1: sc in second ch from hook, sc in each ch across. Fasten off leaving a sewing length.

Roll the row into a spiral, using yarn needle and sewing length, fasten through the bottom until secure. Use remaining sewing length to fasten in the center of the petals. Weave in remaining ends.

"Girly" Dresses

Spoiler, Audrey! Don't let Rora see this!!

For my niece Rora's birthday, my sister asked that I make some Warhol dresses. I went to the thrift store and found two t-shirts for under $4 each.

This first one was made from a Women's XL fitted tee. Because it has been a while since I last made one, I misread the instructions and didn't make the tie long enough by half. Oops! I realized it while I was pinning it in place.

And then, because of the size of the shirt, I didn't have enough to make the second half. Rather than using a different shirt (because all I had was white, *boring*, or black, * Halloween-esk*) I  decided to use the short tie and add a button closure.

And to make the blue button less random, I added a flower using this tutorial with a second button in the center. Instead of using pinking shears, I used regular scissors and melted the edges with a candle after it was sewn on.

The second dress was from a Men's XL. This shirt was brand new with tags still on! The perfectly matching contrasting tie was just the inside of the shirt.

I love the fact that these adorable dresses are not in stereotypical girl colors, but they are still pretty girly. It fits her personality perfectly. I hope she (and her mommy) like them!

Happy Birthday, Rora!

Flower Clips

A woman at my church saw the flower I had made on Pretty's headband on Sunday and asked if I would make some for her to give as part of a baby shower gift. She definitely wanted one just like the pink one she saw, but also wanted a second different one. I made 3 for her to choose from.

The pretty pink one is made with 3 circles cut from a brocade fabric I bought at Joann's with the middle layer flipped to show the pink wrong side.

My personal favorite is the black satin/white lace. If she picks that, I'll have to make another for Pretty (and possibly one for me!)

inspired by craftaholics anonymous.